India loses its top spot in test ranking for the first time since 2016; Australia claims the first position

SPORTS: Australia have claimed the world No.1 Test ranking, dethroning India for the first time since 2016. India slipped to the third spot in the ranking chart with their ratings as 114 while New Zealand took the second spot with ratings of 115.

India held the top spot since October 3, 2016, when they had displaced Pakistan from the top spot following a 178-run win against New Zealand in the second Test at home that had handed them a comfortable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. India thereafter consolidated their position atop with an invincible home run in the 2016/17 season.

However, following the update done by ICC on Friday, India’s results in the 2016/17 season, where they had won 12 Tests and lost just one, were eliminated while also reducing the weightage of games played until May 2019.

And what worked in favour of Australia was that their defeat to South Africa and India in the 2016/17 season was eliminated.  New Zealand, meanwhile remained second in the rankings chart.Australia briefly occupied No.1 spot on the ICC’s Test charts in 2014 then 2016, but had slipped to No.5 in the aftermath of the Cape Town cheating scandal and subsequent suspensions for Steve Smith and David Warner.

Apart from this Australia has also claimed No. 1 spot in the Men’s T20 rankings for the first time since the system was introduced in 2011. Meanwhile, Pakistan slips to fourth spot, having held the No. 1 position for 27 months prior.

Having lost only two of their last 12 T20 matches, Australia has become a dominant figure in the game’s shortest-format, just in time for back-to-back T20 World Cups.

However, Australia remains in fifth spot on the ODI rankings.